Critics keep mentioning the plot and the themes which are the weaker aspects of equilibrium. This movie was incredible for me because of the performances "christian bale" "emily watson" "sean bean" , the superb novelty and excellence of the martial arts and action sequences, and the crisp sharpness of atmosphere. Alot of criticism is aimed at bcuz its based in a dystopic future world andCritics keep mentioning the plot and the themes which are the weaker aspects of equilibrium. This movie was incredible for me because of the performances "christian bale" "emily watson" "sean bean" , the superb novelty and excellence of the martial arts and action sequences, and the crisp sharpness of atmosphere. Alot of criticism is aimed at bcuz its based in a dystopic future world and its "done before" but dystopic setting should be thought of as a genre rather than a plot so i don't think it has to be new and original all the time. Also note that it came out in 2002, soon after the first matrix movie. So it's a bit unfair to say that it copied the matrix when a lot of work would have already begun on equilibrium. Most pple would have watched it years and years after it was made, bcuz they saw christian bale in batman. Equilibrium is always in my mind christian bales greatest performance. And Gun kata a semi-realistic martial art that has spawned a real-life niche in itself.…Expand

Equilibrium is one of those movies I regret not having seen earlier and I was amazed to see that it had scored so badly pretty much everywhere. To start of, yes Sean Bean is in it and yes it happens it should be no mystery by now. Christian Bale plays John Preston is a futuristic cop called a Grammaton Cleric, his job is to find and arrest (or kill) sense offenders which are people whoEquilibrium is one of those movies I regret not having seen earlier and I was amazed to see that it had scored so badly pretty much everywhere. To start of, yes Sean Bean is in it and yes it happens it should be no mystery by now. Christian Bale plays John Preston is a futuristic cop called a Grammaton Cleric, his job is to find and arrest (or kill) sense offenders which are people who have decided to reject the Fascist governments policy that emotions are evil and need to be pressured using a special drug. Prestons character development through out the movie is phenomenal, to see a cold blooded killer who only cares about following his corrupt governments rules to a soft hearted human who risked everything for a puppy is definitely something to see. The new fighting technique called gun kata is definitely interesting when he is actually shooting but when he gets into a close quarter fight near the end it is a bit ridiculous to watch 2 grown men and professional killers slap each others gun about and make absolutely no head way in the fight for a good 30 seconds. The plot is one of the best I have ever seen and kept me enthralled through out the entire movie, there was never a point that I wanted to look away from the screen apart from one part but not because it was bad but because I didn't want to believe it would happen. The team behind this movie worked hard and the actors worked even harder to get their message across, Equilibrium deserves a 10/10 and if I could go any higher I would. Every one needs to go see this movie right now!…Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view.
An underrated piece of art, this bleak future where emotions are forbidden has an ironic emotional core to it. It doesn't surround itself with blatant copies of Fahrenheit 451 and 1984, in fact, what many people would assume are carbon copies I would prefer to call references, harking back to other dystopian films while also being a standalone film in its own right. Equilibrium treats the matter with mild stoicism, foreshadowing particular events in a neat way that manages to explode in a thrilling yet thoughtful way. The ignorance of many critics that assumed the worst, didn't seem to see the whole picture. None of this was about the fact that censorship exists or that you could be executed for certain crimes. The whole idea of the film was to make you see how people behaved through lack of emotion, with the failure to see that emotion is what makes us human. Rather than take a purely political motive, it manages to incorporate perhaps a majorly ethical motive. The action that is contained in this film is not just for showing off. The stylistic features render the action scenes mindblowing, but no less helping to drive the core theme of the story - besides, the main character is a cleric, trained in the art of Gun Kata (a thrilling name for a sadly non-existent masterpiece of fighting style) who manages to put a chink in Libria's armour as we see through his perspective by realising he can use this weapon against the system that attempts and fails to betray him as someone who is 'feeling'. When I first regarded this film, I became fascinated about how, amongst the close-ups and wider shots, the main character seems to obviously show some kind of emotion without the intrusion of the system demanding why on earth he hasn't been arrested for his crimes. This ultimately came to the climax, whereby the foreshadowing managed to sneak its way in at the beginning. The fact that Christian Bale was chosen for this role makes me wonder why some people didn't think this was good, considering how deft he was in executing the action, the visual non-speaking scenes and the dialogue. To the amazing use of irony, a number of heart-rending scenes kept up the core theme, and the stylistic use of camera focus on Christian Bale emphasised the distress that we could feel he was going through, one being his flinching when we don't see the dogs being shot, but we can feel it by way of his reaction. However, I thought one of the most chilling scenes was during a raid of someone's apartment, with fires burning and people spattered with blood, was the simplicity of a dying man running into the main character, known as John Preston, bleeding, desperation and hope glittering in his eyes as he slides down, leaving Preston aghast and completely horrified, reflecting the man's pain. The expression on his face could not have been possibly matched, Christian Bale just executed that so perfectly that I could feel myself choking up and stopping dead. So this film, by none the way anything completely copied from other films, is a masterpiece in its own right. By way of insulting the stylistic features to convey emotion and provide thrilling action that shaped the film, the amazingly well-acted characters that were to no end incredibly fascinating, the amazingly clever storyline, you are refusing to take it to the light of some of the world's greatest films and distastefully making the biggest mistake of throwing it away. Like the scene in the film, whereby Preston awakes from a nightmare with shock and overwhelming emotion, tears away the fabric from the window to reveal glimmering light on the horizon and a rainbow glowing in the rain, it strips away the layers as the film goes on, lulling you into a false sense of security, but instead just brings you surprises exploding onto the scene, leaving you brimming with hope at the end. Look out for the poignant reference of Yeats.…Expand

entertaining and great action scenes. christian bale does a wonderful job portraying a devoted cleric who begins to doubt his original beliefs, abandons them, and eventually fights for them. very good end fight scene.

After watching this movie, I was completely shocked at its metascore! Thank god the users have got it right! This films goes up there in my favourite films of all time list. The story is really good, I don't know why some people were bad mouthing the story, it was really interesting and executed nicely, job well done right there. The action itself is fantastic, I've only watched itAfter watching this movie, I was completely shocked at its metascore! Thank god the users have got it right! This films goes up there in my favourite films of all time list. The story is really good, I don't know why some people were bad mouthing the story, it was really interesting and executed nicely, job well done right there. The action itself is fantastic, I've only watched it recently so considering it was a 2002 film I was definitely impressed.…Expand

I just can't understand the critics sometimes. This movie is great! Don't just always think about '' how crazy idea the storyline is''. This movie has a inner message, and it is beautiful, exiting, and so true. I recommend you to watch, people who give points like 1-6 instead of 7-10, are just too stupid to understand this. Definetly a worth of your time.

The critics who reviewed this terrific movie are morons. Judging from the list of bad movies they gave good reviews for its no surprise. This film is one of the best sci fi action movies ever. You don't have to appreciate the ideas that are presented but cannot deny its powerful impact. We ourselves are the evil we try so hard to oppose. Our ideas and judgements about humanity are all atThe critics who reviewed this terrific movie are morons. Judging from the list of bad movies they gave good reviews for its no surprise. This film is one of the best sci fi action movies ever. You don't have to appreciate the ideas that are presented but cannot deny its powerful impact. We ourselves are the evil we try so hard to oppose. Our ideas and judgements about humanity are all at stake no matter how its presented. And this film does a great job of elevating that narrative.…Expand

This is seriously one of the greatest action movies I've ever seen. The action is awesome, the premise, while simple, is incredibly effective, and you have Christian Bale. Winning combination if I've ever seen one.

Totally under-appreciated and misinterpreted film.
This is one of my all time favorite movies, yet I have a hard time
defending it now as a serious piece of cinema, and I'm not sure why. It
gets low ratings on all the major film sites despite tons of great
actions scenes, a huge overarching story line, great attention to
detail, and a terrific performance by Christian Bale.
TheTotally under-appreciated and misinterpreted film.
This is one of my all time favorite movies, yet I have a hard time
defending it now as a serious piece of cinema, and I'm not sure why. It
gets low ratings on all the major film sites despite tons of great
actions scenes, a huge overarching story line, great attention to
detail, and a terrific performance by Christian Bale.

The Story: The dictator ruled state of Libria force-feeds its citizens
drugs to suppress their emotions, and in fact, feeling emotion is
entirely illegal. Punishment is death.

Overactive emotions have been known to cause many of humanity's
previous atrocities and wars, so to vanquish emotion is to therefore
benefit humankind. There is a method to the madness; this film is set
right after world war III, and emotion suppression is modern humanity's
solution for preventing world war IV.

Of course there are those that do not see this repression as a benefit
and so an underground resistance forms. Although the plot is
excellently executed, the dystopian theme comes across as just a little
bit too close (for some, not for me) to an exact replica of an
Orwellian model. Equilibrium has been accused of being unoriginal, a
mere mishmash of well-known various Sci- Fi stories.

I was never bothered by this mishmash. Examining the film shows there
are more than enough original features, features that people must be
overlooking when judging, because the originality more than counter
balances the borrowed material.

The top ranking law enforcement officials are (I think very cleverly)
called Clerics. They employ the use a fictitious fighting style called
the Gun Kata. The Gun Kata a major part of the film and makes for some
amazing scenes. The details about the world are so specific that it
really is an amazing accomplishment on writer/director Kurt Whimmer's
part. Whimmer makes a living mainly as a writer, Equilibrium being one
of only two major features he's directed.

As I said earlier, Christian Bale gives a great performance, handling
almost all the fight scenes himself, and due to budget constraints,
only being allowed a handful of takes to get each set of complex
choreography right. Director Whimmer makes excellent use of light and
space, pleading his case for humanity's right to "feel" as light peeks
through the drab gray tones of the photography, rarely, but just
enough.

Equilibrium is the biggest box office flop of a film I can think of.
For how epic it is, the 20 million dollar budget seems miniscule, but
its total to-date gross is $1.2 million, a totally pathetic ratio.
Equilibrium appeared around the same time as the Matrix was doing its
thing and so Equilibrium got very little press. The two films share a
similar vibe and since Equilibrium came out second, it loses points for
originality, and even though The Matrix is undoubtedly a great
achievement, Christina Bale is hands-down the better lead (I'm not too
fond of Keanu Reeves). Just based on that fact alone Equilibrium is
worth checking out.…Expand

The best thing about Equilibrium is its impressive look. Along with its generally fine cast and some well-choreographed fights, that goes a long way to making the movie watchable -- despite its underlying stupidity.